


One For One

by torturingtaylor (itzaimster)



Category: Hanson, The Following
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-20 01:26:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4768358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itzaimster/pseuds/torturingtaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place during episode 1x07 Let Me Go - what happens when Olivia's death is rudely interrupted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One For One

“Say these exact words to him. ‘Joe Carroll is killing me and it’s because of you Ryan’.”  
“What?”  
“Tell him I’m killing you and it’s because of him.”  
“Don’t do it Joe.”  
“Hardy-“  
“Wait, Olivia!”  
“Please, NO!”  
“Put Joe on the phone with me!”  
“Tell him that. Tell him it’s all. His. Fault!”  
“I won’t!”  
“What’s going on?”  
“Tell him he can kill me! Olivia? Olivia!”

Joe was so intent, so focused, that the world outside the car may as well have not existed. His eyes locked on hers as he slowly watched her life slip away from her. She was no match for him even with his broken fingers, and they both knew it.   
He was so mesmerised and so drawn to her suffering, that the sound of the window shattering behind him may as well have been an echo in the back of his mind.  
That was until rough hands grabbed him by the collar and pulled him backward. At first his grip on Olivia was so locked that he jerked her head with him, but when he received a right hook to the face he was forced to let go.  
“RUN!” the stranger urged Olivia, and she was out of the car before she’d fully regained consciousness.  
She fell to her hands and knees as she gasped for air, not knowing what was going on the other side of the car and for the moment not caring.  
She needed to get away from Joe.  
She could hear the sounds of a fight behind her as she crawled on her hands and knees out into the road, barely making it to the curb before feeling hands on her shoulders.  
She screamed.  
“Hey! Hey! It’s okay!” and she realised it wasn’t Joe, “come on, on your feet!”  
The man helped her up, and with a two second pause to slip off her heels she let him lead her down the pavement and into a nearby office building. Inside he found her a seat and while looking over his shoulder he used his cell phone to call the police.  
Olivia took the moment to catch her breath, keeping her eye out the window for any sign of Joe.  
“Do you… have any idea… who that was?” she choked out between breaths.  
“Yeah I do,” the man replied before he was connected.  
He quickly gave their location and insisted that Joe Carroll had been involved. Olivia heard him give his name as Taylor. When he was promised a quick response he soon hung up.  
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she insisted when he came back to check on her.  
“Nonsense,” he insisted, “let’s just get out of his way.”

Minutes later – long after they’d lost visual on Joe – a black vehicle careened around the corner and came to halt beside Olivia’s car.  
“That’s Ryan Hardy,” she realised, attempting to get to her feet.  
“Stay here,” Taylor insisted, stepping out himself.  
He took a careful look around before attempting to get the agents’ attention. The younger one saw him and indicated to Hardy before they both made their way over.  
“Where is she?” Hardy demanded.  
“Inside,” Taylor indicated.  
Hardy moved past as the other agent came to his side.  
“Thank you,” he said sincerely, “if you hadn’t have been there-“  
“I know,” Taylor scratched at his head awkwardly before following them back inside.

*

“Ryan!” Mike called on his way into the office, “there’s something here for you!”  
He was carrying a yellow envelope which he promptly handed over. Ryan took it with a frown, noting the lack of address despite his name.  
“Where did this come from?” he demanded.  
“Front desk,” Mike replied, “she said a woman dropped it off.”  
A knowing look crossed Ryan’s face as he felt for the contents, before ripping open the end and sliding the disc out.  
Mike held out his hand in offering.  
Ryan paused before placing it in Mike’s palm. Mike took it straight back to his own office – Ryan closely in tow – and set it into his own computer.  
The moment the video began to play they could already hear Olivia’s voice.  
“Dammit!” Ryan cursed, immediately going for his cell phone and dialling her number.  
“Say ‘hello Ryan’,” Joe’s voice prompted, though they couldn’t see anyone on screen clearly, “say… ‘somebody is going to die today’.”  
“She’s not picking up,” Ryan shook his head.  
“Should I put this on the big screen?” Mike looked up worriedly.  
“No. Keep playing it. Find out what he wants,” Ryan instructed, trying Olivia’s cell phone again.  
Mike obliged, despite everything inside his head telling him not to.  
“Get a location!” Ryan barked as the camera finally showed some people.  
“How did this happen so fast?” Mike asked under his breath as he tried to discern the background.  
“Fortunately for her, Olivia here still has a chance to save herself…” Joe’s voice continued, the camera showing Joe’s hand on her shoulder.  
Her wrists were bound with tape, and there was a shadow to her right.  
“There’s other people there,” Mike’s eyes darted, “not on screen.”  
“More followers?” Ryan was still on the phone.  
“Olivia has a choice. One in a way similar to a choice that assuredly plagued our ancestors back in the day,” Joe was enjoying himself, “that choice is… to kill, or be killed.”  
Mike frowned at that, watching as Joe held a knife in front of the camera for theatrical effect. Ryan had paused in his pacing, eyes now locked to the screen.  
“I mean let’s face it Olivia, he was going to die anyway,” Joe was attempting to reason, “at least this way you get something out of it, right?”  
“Who is he talking about?” Ryan demanded.  
“I don’t…” Mike shrugged, before squinting as he caught a glimpse of something over her shoulder in the background.  
“There,” he pointed while Joe attempted to place the knife in Olivia’s hands, “there’s someone there.”  
“Is that…?” Ryan leant over the back of Mike’s chair.  
“That’s the guy who saved her yesterday. Taylor Hanson,” Mike confirmed.  
They were barely glimpses, but it was obviously him. Being held in place by someone almost as tall as him, his wrists had been bound and held above his head and he’d been gagged with thick cloth. A line of red ran from his forehead down the left side of his face. He barely looked conscious.  
“Then he’s somewhere close,” Ryan insisted.  
“Ryan – we don’t know when this was filmed,” Mike pointed out, “it could have been last night for all we know.”  
“He said ‘today’, not ‘tonight’.”  
Mike returned his attention to the screen as Olivia was led over to the thin figure by two people wearing masks. There was definitive fear in his eyes and he tried to pull away as they approached.  
“We’re going to learn something new today,” Joe coaxed Olivia, making sure she held the knife out before her, “this will mark the start of something new for you. Whether you choose that to be a new life – or a new death – is entirely up to you.”  
“Hey this is Ryan Hardy, I need you to put me through to the cell phone of Taylor Hanson, the guy from yesterday,” Ryan was back on his phone, “yeah with Olivia.”  
Mike was watching with a pained expression as Joe raised Taylor’s shirt invitingly and indicated to Olivia exactly where to put the knife. She was already protesting with a shake of her head and had dropped the knife once so far. Each time her hands shook Joe would hold them steady.  
“No answer from him either,” Ryan broke his concentration.  
“I think we know why, Ryan,” he swallowed a horrible taste in his mouth.  
The masked person behind Taylor held him steady at the hips while Joe gave Olivia her final instructions. She wasn’t budging, she was instead becoming hysterical.   
“This isn’t going so well,” Mike took note of the expression clear on Joe’s face, “he doesn’t like not being able to manipulate people.”  
“No surprise there,” Ryan muttered, eyes still on the screen.  
“She’s not gonna do it,” Mike realised, sitting back in his chair a little.  
Joe evidently realised this at about the same point. He indicated to someone off camera with a shake of his head before a gunshot sounded and Olivia fell out of frame.  
“What a disappointment. And here I was looking forward to an exciting afternoon,” Joe commiserated as the camera looked down to Olivia’s crumpled form.  
Mike covered his mouth with his hand and shot Ryan a glance. He already looked as though he were barely holding it together.  
Joe had stooped to retrieve the knife and now had his eye on Taylor.  
“No matter. We make do with what we have, isn’t that right?”  
The person behind Taylor remained holding him steady, despite any attempts to push himself backward. He’d already tried to reach the knots at his wrists with his teeth but they were just barely too high and the gag stopped any movement to begin with.  
Joe raised his shirt again and trailed a finger along his abdomen, pausing at a spot on the right before sliding the knife in. His left hand went to Taylor’s throat to make sure he could watch his eyes glaze over.  
“This is for getting in my way,” he said to him, barely audibly.  
“Anything on the location?!” Ryan demanded, making Mike jump.  
“No, no sorry,” Mike looked forlorn, his eyes going back to the screen.  
When Joe finally removed the knife Taylor fell so that his wrists were holding him up. Joe took hold of his chin to check that he was truly unconscious before wiping the blade off on his pants.  
“A parting gift, Ryan,” he turned to the camera, “I shall make it easy for you and have someone leave a car at the station with these two inside. You know how I do dislike mess-“  
Mike jumped again as Ryan bolted for the doorway. He quickly paused the video before following him out.

Mike kept one hand on his gun as Ryan threw the front door open, already gaining the attention of the surrounding officers and agents.  
“What is it Agent Hardy?” one of them standing just outside had to ask.  
“One of these cars doesn’t belong here,” he pointed around the lot, “do you know which one?!”  
Mike soon joined him just in time for the officer to shake her head and for Ryan to take off. He quickly began searching through the cars for anything out of the ordinary. Taking his lead, Mike did the same thing.  
“Here!” he was the first to spot something.  
Keys had been left in the ignition. He quickly opened the door and did a visual search of the car before leaning in to open the trunk.  
“There’s blood on the steering wheel and passenger seat,” he informed Ryan as he made it to the car.  
Ryan gave him a sideways look before opening the trunk himself. Inside, contorted into the small space, were the bodies of both Olivia and Taylor. Mike blanched backward when he saw the distortion in Olivia’s face, unable to stop himself thinking about how they could only have been alive just an hour or so ago.  
Ryan leant in to check regardless. Olivia was evidently long gone, but Taylor’s eyes were closed. Having to move one of the lawyer’s legs to reach Taylor’s neck, a look of disbelief soon crossed his face.  
“He’s got a pulse!” he announced, making Mike’s eyes widen.  
“What?!”  
“Someone call 911!” Ryan yelled back to the audience that had gathered at the entrance to the station, “we need a paramedic!”  
Mike leant in to check for himself, before both he and Ryan worked together to pull Olivia’s body from the trunk. Once they had her clear Ryan attempted to flatten Taylor’s body out and apply pressure to the stab wound.  
“It’s still bleeding,” Mike shook his head in shock, “how?!”  
“They were close,” Ryan realised, “this can’t have happened thirty minutes ago. Get someone on surveillance and find out who left this car here. I’ll take care of this.”  
Mike paused, not wanting to leave him out in the open, before doing as he was told. He jogged back over to the doors, ordering two of the officers to go to Ryan’s side and help as needed.  
Ryan looked either way down the street, trying to spot a rogue vehicle. The street was practically deserted. It made it easier to hear the ambulance sirens off in the distance, and by proxy the thought that he may just be able to save someone _this one time_.


End file.
